RESIDENCE TIMES OF WATERS BEHIND BARRIER ISLANDS

Abstract

This study pertains to lagoons connected to the ocean by narrow, constricted inlets. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the convective or non-dispersive transport in these lagoon systems. Equations describing the flow in the lagoon and in the inlets are derived. Because the convective transport results from the higher order (non-linear) terms in the equations, only third order terrms and higher are neglected. A numerical model is developed especially to compute the flow in water bodies connected to the ocean by inlets. The results of the study presented here are mainly based on theoretical considerations.KWP-collectio